lost Epic in Nexus
+ Show First Post
Total: 1146
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

"We're assuming that the worldleaper's actually random, that does the same thing as worlds mixing. Which it might not be - it found alts the very first trip out - but it's supposed to be and it usually behaves pretty much like you'd expect if it were random. Once we've got all Edda's neighbors mapped if none of them are dangerous I guess we can make a lot of worldleaps and check if it's truly random."

Permalink

"Why is same as mixing if is random?"

Permalink

"Well, the reason it's important if the deer mix is that you're assuming that your second sample of deer is independent of your first sample. If deer tend to live in the same area or something, then your second sample isn't independent of your first one. If you had a way to choose deer completely at random, then you'd know you could assume the samples were independent like that."

Permalink

Pen chews on this concept for a while, then nods.

Permalink

"Want to do a couple more tries?"

Permalink

"Kay."

She does a couple more tries. No Jane no meanness no adjacency.

Permalink

That's okay. They leave beacons. They go home. He confesses to Linyabel that he's actually not sure how to adjust the population-estimation procedure for a series of discrete world-visits, each of which might be to a previously visited world or a new one, does she happen to know the correct statistical procedure for that?

Permalink

She hasn't made a focus of statistics (after she got through general education math last year her focus has been cryptography) but she's probably got it in a book somewhere in her stolen library of useful educational material! She does remember that the phrase they want is "sampling with replacement".

Permalink

And here are a bunch of statistical models and the formula for the variance of their estimate and there's a Bayesian version if he has priors about how many neighbors worlds have which he does not (yes, technically one always does, but he doesn't have any he'd like to be building nice steady math on top of) and he draws up a more sophisticated version of the equation he told Pen and once they land somewhere they've been before he is all prepared to hazard a guess about how many neighbors that world has. 

 

Escobar and Tau Ceti?

Permalink

Escobar and Tau Ceti! Linyabel has managed to incoporate them out of Escobar (Jackson's Whole would be easier in many ways, but, y'know, fuck Jackson's Whole) and acquire necessary permits without having to talk to anyone in person. They are allowed to have satellites around each world. Linyabel thinks it unlikely that anyone is watching closely enough to notice if they just appear. They will need to be like so and then propelled in this way to fall into their prescribed flight paths.

Permalink

He can totally do that. Satellites are propelled into their prescribed flight paths. When he's done he comes home and swoops around the dome giggling gleefully.

Permalink

He has company! Well, not with the swooping, but with the giggling.

Permalink

"We're so great!" he says when he lands next to her. "You're going to be the first Bell to own a planet by the time you're ten."

Permalink

"I mean, I'm pretty sure we could get recognition of owning this planet we are on right now if we needed that," she says.

Permalink

"Sure but that's no fun. Enough money to save all the frozen people, that'll be fun."

 

 

Permalink

He writes a letter home telling Boots all about it. He makes them a delicious celebratory feast and a big monitor displaying how much money they've made off the ansibles (none, yet, but soon...)

Permalink

Soon lots. The rate is extravagant but the first standard-size message is free, proof of concept. No bites, no bites - one bite - six of them - headline news on both planets.

Permalink

This calls for more whooping and singing and flying. He is very tempted to add fireworks but they'd be a pain to clean up - if only Pen were the other kind of angel - if only he were a magic rock, except he'd totally have despair-spiralred right out of magic when he got lost - 

 

- well, whooping and singing and flying and using ansibles to watch the news on faraway planets is more than enough.

Permalink

Jackson's Whole wants one! Earth wants one! Vervain wants one! Hegen Hub wants one! Linyabel hires a law firm and lets Fëanáro know when and where to put more satellites.

Permalink

Fëanáro is the only demon in the accessible multiverse and he is having the time of his life and wherever Linyabel wants a satellite there will be a satellite.

Permalink

Marvelous.

She starts probing the cryocorps on Kibou-Daini; it's slow going.

Permalink

And every day if there's not lots else going on he takes Pen out to do three jumps and checks for adjacency.

Permalink

Once she lands right in a star. It's toasty.

Permalink

If she likes hanging out in stars she can totally do it on purpose sometime, he did it once - admittedly because he was really upset - and it was in fact pretty cathartic.

 

 

No adjacencies. 

Total: 1146
Posts Per Page: